Saturday, July 24, 2010

Saturday Allsorts

I signed up for my first ever Friday Night Sew in hosted by Handmade by Heidi and it happened last night. Everyone in the Pyjamas household was briefed on the sew in rules ..ie I am unavailable between 7 pm and 11 pm unless someone dies or requires serious medical attention. If you disturb me you better make sure you have your running shoes on and the phone number for medical attention because you'll need it by the time I'm finished with you. Everyone played the game -well mostly. I did wander out of my sewing room at one point and Little P and I played a game of chasey around the ottoman in the lounge and another game of "lets turn the floor lamp on and off for around 20 minutes" because that's heaps of fun. Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how blessedly cute my grandson is? No ? Well he is. I love that he's learning he can influence his environment and the people in it. That kid said Na- Na about a thousand times yesterday and pointed at bananas because he learned earlier in the day if you ask - you will receive. Genius I tell you - that child is a genius and everything he does is one step closer towards the germination of an amazing human being.

Any-hoo. Focus. Sew In. I decided to start something new because I simply don't have enough on my plate at the moment. For all my bitching about Christmas in July at work this week , I was inspired to start a Christmas quilt , mainly because I have approximately 187 yards of Christmas fabric in my stash and have never done a Christmas quilt before. Not being completely insane, (yet) I decided to keep this one simple. I'm planning a second Christmas quilt this year that'll be more complicated but for now, I'm about a bee's whisker away from a complete meltdown. KISS (Keeping it simple stupid ) is the way to go.

So at 8 pm last night, I started with this pile of Robert Kaufman Sparkle All the Way Jelly Roll bits. Yes I was late to the sew in. Have you ever noticed jelly rolls look sublime when they arrive but kind of look like spilled guts once they're unrolled? They don't look nearly as pretty. They really are a case in point for clever marketing because if they slopped bits of random fabric strips in a baggie nobody would buy them.

And hey Presto by 11 pm last night I had this...lots of strips for a Christmas stacked coin quilt.

In other fabulously gossipy news this week, the delectable Jenni over at Baa Me Kniits had a giveaway recently for this lovely shawl and I won. Whooooooooo Hooooooooooo. I'm so going to parade this lovely at work and make everyone jealous. Thanks again Jenni. (and to her son who drew my name !)

Elizabeth over at Such a Sew and Sew is having a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post. You can win this abbey bag made by Elizabeth herself. Don't you just love the fabric and cute little pin cushion? Pop on over and have a gander about how to enter and to congratulate her on the 200 posts thingy, which is actually a really big deal.

And I had a cook-a-thon this morning because it will be the last time I do one in my old kitchen since this time next week , it will no longer exist. Plus we will need to eat while we are waiting for the new kitchen to go in, but we'll pretty much only have a microwave so I made enough spaghetti sauce for three meals, beef koftas for two meals, and enough curry for three meals. Then I made 7 dozen party sausage rolls for Little P's birthday party tomorrow.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm Rendang

Little P's sausage rolls

Yesterday , I primed the meat safe (again) and today Mr. P decided I wasn't painting fast enough or well enough or something and took over doing the top coat. (has anyone else ever noticed every picture of Mr. P is on an angle? )

I've decided you can all suffer through the kitchen re-do with me in real time from here on in. So much is starting to happen that I want to spread the misery as far as possible to share it with you in infinite detail. This week I contacted 5 tilers, two of whom actually turned up to quote me for a 40 square metre tiling job. The kitchen installer contacted me today and came out to do his final measure and walk us through the process. He confirmed they would be arriving early next Friday morning to take out the old kitchen (and they'll even remove the sink splashback tiles for us while they're doing it.) The plumber will be coming next Friday as well to start installing the new plumbing for the dishwasher and to cap our old tap connections and put the new ones in since we're moving the taps...whooooooooo hooooooooo, it's actually happening! That's progress.

Have a fabulous weekend. My Saturday night will be spent looking at what other particpants got up to for Friday Sew In and I'll be partying tomorrow with the one year old crowd and all of the Pyjama's family.

13 comments:

Stay calm over the next week - it will be great in the end. Keep telling yourself that.

I've never felt the need to do any christmassy sewing, but then I only do a little bit of decorating if I am having people over on the day. Some years I don't bother at all! No I'm not a scrooge, I love Christmas but sometimes with work there hasn't been time.

Great choice on the simpleness of a stacked coin quilt! They definitely keep things simple and look great too - and Christmas fabrics to boot - can't wait to see it!....and the new kitchen (someday) too!

P.S. Why does commenting on most blogs always take at least two tries because 'there was an error processing this form'???? SHEESH!

Hello Ms. P. I've been folowing your blog for awhile and have to comment today. I've lived through 3kitchen remodels and can empathize with you every step of the way. Be prepared for lots of DIRT in the house! I've been thinking of making a Christmas quilt and your idea of a coins pattern seems just right. Thanks so much. Enjoy the party!

Aha! So I see what the rules mean at your house. If you are adorable and about 2 years old, the rules of disturbing the quilter don't apply. ;-)

You are on your way to fabulous looking Christmas quilt!

And yes we do want to hear about your reno misery....er adventure in complete detail. It makes our lives seem much more sane. ;-) Tee-hee! Actually, it's great to hear you are getting close to the part where the new stuff goes in.

Mrs. P, I totally ♥ your Christmas coins quilt. It is fantastic! You said Robert Kauman Sparkle all the Way? I'm thinking I'm going to have to join the FNSew-in so I can be as cool and productive as you.

I'm also completely blown away at the number of things you've accomplished. I hope there are enough sausage rolls to go around and that the Pyjama party is a huge succes. Little P sounds like a prodigy!

Mr. P is a totaly stud, IMO, for taking over the painting for you. The facial hair and Australian accent make him the complete package. That is one fantastic man you've got there.

And in my excitement and drooling over your Christmas coin quilt, I almost forgot to tell you thanks for the awesome bloggy shout-out! I really appreciate it!

I love your Christmas blocks. Can't wait to see it all put together. Sounds like you have lots of good food ready to go for the next week...mmmmmm! Hope you have a great week and survive the rennovation!

Good, I want to hear exactly what's going on with the kitchen remodel- Step by step! That was HILARIOUS what you said about jelly -rolls - I feel the exact same way - which is maybe why I don't buy them much anymore! (Still love those charm packs, though- and since they're only $8, I feel like I can totally afford them - except then I buy 3 or 4 packs at a time and there goes the affordability factor!)

Disclaimer

I come from the Land Down Under where the two primary food groups are Vegemite and Tim Tams. If you haven’t tried Vegemite you really haven’t lived. I highly recommend you run out and get some and slather it on a piece of bread about an inch thick. I promise you'll love it. I frequently eat vegemite sandwiches or coco pops for tea because after a full day of hanging out with the pre- school crowd in my day job, I usually can’t recall my own name much less cook dinner. It’s OK there are no actual kids living in my house so I’m only neglecting grownups.
Not doing housework, windows or my own grocery shopping frees up my spare time so I can quilt, sew , blog, attempt to bake and lay on my lounge playing games on my Ipad. I only iron when I need to press quilt seams. I only wash when we’re in imminent danger of running out of clean undies. In fact once my husband had to draw me a map so I could find the laundry.
My blog is a random place where I document my (mis)adventures, occasionally chuck in a swear word or two and vent my spleen about all manner of things. This is a place only for the very brave or slightly insane. Welcome.